Thousands Demonstrate Across the Country at NLRB Offices

Angered by a slew of recent NLRB decisions that are stripping workers of their rights, CWA members and staff joined other union activists — 1,000 altogether — at a noontime rally Thursday in front of National Labor Relation Board headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C.

"I'm here today because new rules from the Labor Board undo everything we worked to achieve," said CWA member Jonathan Upright, an AT&T retail sales consultant in Winston-Salem, N.C, speaking at a warmup rally before the march to the NLRB. "Why would the federal agency that's supposed to protect workers' rights actually make it harder for workers to exercise their rights and make their lives better? It's not right."

Upright and his coworkers formed their union at an AT&T mobility center early this year after management announced pay and benefit cuts.  That led workers to CWA, which has a national neutrality and card check agreement with AT&T, he told the rally participants.  They formed their union without a struggle. But now the NLRB is forcing AT&T's hand.

"Now there are notices from the Labor Board posted around our worksite instructing us how to get rid of our union," Upright said. "Our retail centers are the first in the nation to have to post these new legal notices. I just want to remind you that the Labor Board never posted a sign telling us we had the right to form a union."

Upright said he's confident his bargaining unit is strong and can withstand the assault, but he's worried about other workers. As union leaders speaking with Upright said, the assaults will end with a revolution at the ballot box next November -- which in turn will move the Employee Free Choice Act from legislation to law.

The crowd of about 1,000 members of unions ranging from the Teachers to the Steelworkers to the Seafarers marched several blocks to the NLRB building. They carried signs demanding passage of the Employee Free Choice Act to make it easier for workers to organize and bargain contracts. Workers in at least 20 cities across the country held similar rallies Thursday at local NLRB offices.

The Republican-controlled NLRB issued 61 decisions in September that stack the deck against workers. Collectively, the decisions:

• Make it harder for workers to form a union through majority sign-up, often called card check, and make it easier for employers to reverse a workers' victory.  The NLRB ruled that the employer must instruct its workforce that 30 percent of them can petition for an election to get rid of the union.
• Make it harder for workers who are illegally fired to receive back pay.
• Make it easier for employers to discriminate against union organizers.
• Make it easier for employers to escape bargaining obligations.

Workers also suffer because of long delays in their attempt to get justice from the NLRB: The AFL-CIO said more than half the decisions handed down in September were on cases that had been pending for more than four years and one case that had begun as far back as 1989.

"The Bush Board has steamrolled the rights of American workers again and again," United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said in a fiery speech. "This agency is supposed to protect workers' rights and enforce their freedom to improve their lives through unions. Instead, we have a board that has blatantly promoted a corporate agenda at every turn. I don't know how they can sleep at night. It's time for this attack on America's workers to end."